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Six Business Mistakes Every New Entrepreneur Should Avoid

YEC is an invite-only organization comprised of the world's most successful entrepreneurs 40 and younger.

When starting out as a new entrepreneur, you need to be ready for all kinds of challenges and obstacles, from insufficient funding to tough competition, as well as trouble finding enough customers or dealing with incapable employees. But perhaps some of the most frustrating problems you will face will be those you cause yourself, as a consequence of a mis-timed action or off-day decision.

Mistakes are part of any entrepreneur’s journey; after all, to err is human. However, armed with knowledge and advice from peers, new entrepreneurs can plan ahead to help deal with some of the most common mistakes of running a business.

Below, six members of Young Entrepreneur Council talk about the biggest mistakes they ever made throughout their career, as well as how to successfully circumvent them. Here's what they said:

Members share some missteps they've made, as well as what they've learned from the experience.Photos courtesy of individual members

1. Failing to Create Accountability

Create accountability in a service-based business! When I started, I let students sign up and pay when they arrived to class — my attrition was terrible! I remember “filling” my first class and it rained in NYC thatday, so only three people showed up. Charging even a small amount creates accountability in customers: If you value what you do, then they will, too. - Jen Oleniczak Brown, The Engaging Educator

2. Working With the Wrong People

I've made lots of mistakes, but my biggest mistakes have always been working with the wrong people. You are going to make these mistakes. It's very common. Many companies have ousted co-founders. The key is to be prepared with a long-term vesting schedule and the use of cliffs for everything. You can also identify problems early. If the shared vision isn't there, it's not going to work. - Abraham Kamarck, True Made Foods, Inc.

3. Ignoring Your Instincts

I didn’t listen to my instincts about a business adviser and almost lost my business. In my gut, I didn’t trust him, but he convinced me otherwise. My mistake was not verifying his claims. I now do extensive due diligence and verify people by learning who they surround themselves with. Honest people will not be afraid to share their group of friends. Show me your friends, and show me who you are. - Hadari Oshri, xehar

4. Starting Without Proper Funding

I started my business without proper funding, and although I made it work, I had to move back in with my mom and work from her spare bedroom for a while because I couldn't afford my own rent. It took a year to build the business up, without any backing, to be able to afford an apartment, then another year before I had an office and could hire. Be prepared or be ready to sacrifice! - James Moore, Small Business Owners of America

5. Overcommitting Yourself

As an early entrepreneur, you are hungry and driven by success. Success can come in multiple forms, such as developmental milestones or revenue growth. For those focused on revenue growth, it can be easy to overcommit yourself and your team. By doing so, you are setting yourself up to fail and only making your company's scalability more challenging than it already is. - Ryan Christiansen, Ntooitive Digital

6. Not Prioritizing Sales

Sales are everything. Make sure you can get people to pay you money for your ideas before you spend months, or even years, trying to build a company around it. - Jason Wardrop, Arsenal MKG, Inc.

Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invitation-only, fee-based organization comprised of the world's most successful entrepreneurs 40 and younger. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year an...